New to Socal - Santiago Canyon Area Ride this weekend?

Hey,

Let me introduce myself. I'm Seth and I just moved from the Bay Area (Berkeley) to Irvine this past week due to work and looking to learn about the mountain biking trails around Orange County. I'm a long time MTBR member but haven't been too active on the NorCal board for some time.

A little more about myself. I'm a civil engineer that designs roadways for a medium size firm. I transferred offices since the northern california market is a bit slow at the moment and we wanted to see how we would like SoCal. If we hate it, we can move back

I started racing XC full time in 2009 and moved my way up to Cat 1 last year. My season didn't end very well, I crashed and smashed my face, knee and broke my thumb in September, so I decided to take 2013 off from racing and just ride (orthodontia is expensive!)

Anyway, I was down here for a 2 months before we moved, staying at a hotel so I only brought my road & commuter bike but I saw a lot of mountain bikers while biking up Santiango Canyon and looked like I passed several trailheads.

That being said, anyone interested in a early weekend ride, like 8am for a couple hours? Seems like theres some trailheads off Portola Pkwy or Santiago Canyon? I could use a guide, I'm not too concerned with pace, slow or medium, whatever, since I haven't been on the mountain bike since my spill in September, might be a little rusty.

Hey Seth, welcome to Socal dirt. In case you didn't know, this Saturday is the big Warriors event (Counting Coup and Vision Quest) so many of the mountain routes (east of Santiago Canyon Rd) will be busy. Santiago Truck Trail is not part of the course so should be OK. The parks (i.e. Whiting, Santiago Oaks, Aliso) are also busy on weekends this time of year but OK if you're patient.

Having said that I'll be out there but not yet sure if Sat or Sun or what time or where. Since you were a cat1 I might bore you to death on the uphills anyway... but PM me if interested. Dave